This is the story of a very unusual project: a 250-page comic showing people talking about science. Not your cup of tea? Actually, the seeming lack of overlap between “comics people” and “science people” is part of this story. It was one reason this book took nearly two decades from inception to publication.
In this episode, Ryan Haupt joins Tim to review this book, called The Dialogues; then, the book’s author, USC physics professor Clifford V. Johnson, explains the arduous journey of this book, which explains a topic that’s poorly understood by the public via a medium that’s also poorly understood by the public.
Also including some actual science talk, including Ryan’s recommendations for other non-fiction comics about science!
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Just wanted to say I really enjoyed this episode and am glad you managed to get Clifford Johnson on to add some history to this comic, which I will be picking up.
He is correct that there is a large overlap of science and comics, which should be obvious since both fall heavily under the nerd umbrella. I have always wondered why there weren’t more comics that explained science since it’s the perfect medium for it, I’m guessing the time it takes to draw them is a large barrier but I liked Clifford’s story on how it was a struggle just to find a publisher. I suspect there are quite a few ‘former scientists’ working in the field doing fiction, but I can only think of Matt Hawkins, the President of Top Cow comics, who does a ton of science fiction and includes science write ups in his books.
Anyhow, I just wanted to write and say I enjoyed this episode, it made me go back and listen to some other science episodes you did with Ryan (like Manhattan Projects, and like him I have a huge interest in this era of physics).
Last, I am Canadian and get some of my comics though Amazon.ca, is there a way to set up your Amazon deal with the Canadian store as well? Would like to help support that way.
Interesting. It makes sense there would be science-comics overlap among readers — it’s interesting that there isn’t so much of it among publishers.
I hadn’t thought of setting up an Amazon Associates account with other countries’ stores. I might have to consider that.